D-Day Diary: Life on the Front Line in the Second World War
By Carol Harris
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6 June 1944 is one of the most memorable dates of the Second World War. It marked the beginning of the end of the conflict as Allied forces invaded Normandy and fought their way into Nazi-occupied Europe. Operation Overlord, as the invasion was codenamed, was an incredible feat. It also proved to be a turning point that would eventually result in the defeat of Nazi Germany. Around 150,000 soldiers landed on the beaches of Normandy on the first day in the largest amphibious operation in history. Within a month more than 1 million men had been put ashore.
As memory becomes history, first-hand accounts of this incredible moment become more and more precious. In D-Day Diary, historian Carol Harris brings together remarkable tales of bravery, survival and sacrifice from what was one of the war’s most dramatic and pivotal episodes.
Carol Harris
Carol Harris has, since 1986, run her own independent consultancy and training practice, Management Magic, which specialises in the development of people and organisations. Prior to that she was, for seven years, Director of Personnel and Administration for the Arts Council of Great Britain. She acts as a trainer, coach, mentor, facilitator and consultant and runs NLP-based courses for clients. She is also the publisher and Editor of Effective Consulting magazine, runs a network marketing business in the health and nutrition field, keeps rare-breed pigs and is the author of books on NLP, networking, consultancy, weight control, magazine production and cookery.
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D-Day Diary - Carol Harris
Acknowledgements
The Allied landings in Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944 marked the beginning of the end of the Second World War. This short book tells the story of the event through the accounts of eyewitnesses.
Today, the D-Day invasion is viewed as not only the biggest but also the most successful invasion ever launched. These contemporary accounts show that at the time, such an outcome seemed far from certain.
As far as I have been able to ascertain, all of those whose accounts make up this book survived the war, although few, sadly, are alive today.
I would like to thank the following people who gave me permission to quote from their own or their relatives’ accounts: Sheila Austin, Barbara Beal, the family of Maureen Bolster, W. Cutler, Annette Conway (for extracts from the papers of Rev. Leslie Skinner), A.M. Kerr (for the account by Captain Maurice Jupp), and Patricia Wildman. Also, to Olivia Beattie at Biteback Publishing, and to the following for permission to quote from online sources: Patrick Elie of the 6Juin website, Mark Hickman of the Pegasus Archive, Lew Johnston from the Air Mobility Command Museum, H. Kalliomaki at Veterans Affairs Canada, the Black Hills Veterans Writing Group, Andrew Whitmarsh of the D-Day Museum in Portsmouth, and Paul Zigo and Donna Bastedo of Center for World War II Studies and Conflict Resolution.
I am especially grateful to the following, without whom this book could not have been written: William and Ralph for their administrative support; Mike Brown for his expert advice; Sophie Bradshaw and Lindsey Smith of The History Press for keeping the project on track, and staff at the Imperial War Museum Research Room, especially Simon Offord, Documents and Sound Archivist.
Contents
Title
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
1 Testing and Training
2 Deception and Delay
3 Airborne Assault
4 Across the Channel
5 On the Beaches: Sword and Juno
6 On the Beaches: Gold, Omaha and Utah
7 Moving Inland
8 Casualties and Non-combatants
Sources and Further Reading
Glossary
Copyright
Abbreviations
1
Testing and Training
The early years of the Second World War were marked by the rapid advance of Germany and Japan as they swept through Europe and the Pacific regions. By the end of 1940, most of Western Europe was under Nazi rule and Britain stood alone. Japan, Germany and Italy had signed the Tripartite Pact, establishing them as the Axis Powers and guaranteeing mutual support if any one of them were to be attacked by any country other than the Soviet Union.
It became increasingly obvious, as the years passed, that an invasion of mainland Europe by the Allies would be necessary to secure victory and end the war. American involvement was essential: without their resources – equipment and soldiers – Britain could only hope to stay in less-than-splendid isolation, cut off from Europe. There, its closest neighbours – France, the Netherlands and Belgium – were under Nazi control, and others such as Switzerland, Portugal and Spain remained neutral.
The Japanese attack on the US base in Pearl Harbor in December 1941 changed the picture dramatically, forcing the United States, in which anti-war sentiment had been a strong influence, to enter the war. This meant that, suddenly, the Allies had enough manpower and equipment to make an invasion possible, although nothing on the scale required had ever been attempted before.
Allied plans for an invasion of Northern France were first outlined in Operation Roundup in 1942. The plan was drawn up by President Eisenhower, then Brigadier General of the US forces, and the invasion was to take place in early 1943. It quickly became apparent, however, that this was unlikely to happen: among British objections were those of Winston Churchill, who favoured an invasion through the Mediterranean, and those of British military chiefs, who wanted to wait until the German Army was worn down by fighting in the Soviet Union.
Samuel Eliot Morison, an American historian and sailor in the US Navy, wrote in his book The Invasion of France and Germany that, given shortages of merchant shipping, landing craft and other resources, the planned date of early 1943 was unrealistic. Any such invasion called for a force of between 500,000 and 750,000 soldiers and 5,800 aircraft. British and Allied forces from the rest of Europe would have to await the arrival of US forces and equipment, which would have to be sent by sea and air across the Atlantic.
Operation Bolero, the codename for this build-up of military personnel and equipment, began at the end of April 1942. Over the next two years, soldiers, sailors and airmen drawn from Britain, America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Norway, Poland and Czechoslovakia were trained and organised into the largest invasion force ever seen.
Naturally, the build-up of such enormous forces required an extraordinary level of secrecy.
If the German Army discovered the true date and location of the invasion of Europe, it could plan a response and inflict heavy casualties on the invading forces.
Landing craft waiting to leave England. (Author)
There was ample evidence of the catastrophe which could follow a botched invasion. In August 1942, an Allied raid was attempted on the French port of Dieppe. The invading force totalled more than 6,000 troops, included 5,000 Canadians, 1,000 British Commandos and fifty American Rangers. They were supported by eight Allied destroyers and seventy-four Allied air squadrons. The aims were to gather information and destroy equipment and installations.
The Allies knew little about their target. The town and beaches were heavily defended by 1,500 German infantry with machine guns and artillery. Over 60 per cent of those – mainly Canadian – forces who went ashore were killed, wounded or taken prisoner. The only success of the nine-hour raid was the capture, by commandos under Lord Lovat, of a gun battery. Losses among the RAF and Navy were high too.
Kenneth Beal, a signalman with the Light Coastal Forces of the Royal Navy, was on the raid in Motor Launch 194. He wrote later:
The old timers on board, who knew the drill for these occasions, found time to give themselves a thorough wash all over. Then they changed their underwear and replaced it with the clean items. Why? Because, they said, many wounds were made worse by fragments of dirty clothing carried into them. I sobered up a bit at this point. Most of us copied them.
Before dawn, we saw tracer fire up ahead between our leading ships and a German coastal convoy. It lasted about 15 minutes and I wondered what the enemy’s look-outs ashore would make of it. A little later came the sound of our aircraft passing overhead as the early grey light began to lift the darkness.
We had, by this time, passed safely through the Germans’ minefields. Our sweepers up ahead had cleared a path for us, dropping small lighted buoys to mark the swept channel. Red to port and green to starboard.
The sound of bombing ahead commenced, and gradually crescendoed. The sky lightened and we could see smoke from the land, and debris being hurled high into the air. The exchange of fire between the Van [vanguard] of our forces and the shore began slowly. It grew in intensity until, in what was now bright light, we ourselves, accompanied by the orchestra of battle came into the fight …
My fear was made worse by the unbearably slow approach to the beach and the guns. This creeping approach was very hard on my nerves. I found that something was pulling me strongly in the other direction, and if I had been a soldier on land, I would have run for it. At this point we did turn for the open sea, but only to go back and get one of the LCP’s and give her a tow.
The crew of ML 214 who were leading the group told me after, that when they saw us turn tail and speed out to sea again, they felt very bad. Actually it made me feel better. It was only a temporary retreat and we had to cross that nasty stretch of water a second time before we rejoined the group.
The shells were now exploding right in amongst our LCPs. ‘Poor Devils’ I thought when one was almost capsized by one of the huge shells. It righted itself however and carried on in. Then clearly across the water from the Canadians came the boost to my morale that I so badly needed.
BAGPIPES. In peacetime I disliked them. On that morning they were music indeed. The Camerons of Canada’s piper was playing his wild music to take his regiment in to the beach to face the enemy.
ML 214 had originally headed in slightly to the west of where she should have been. Discovering her error in time she altered course slightly to the east, approaching the correct beach diagonally. Not very good navigating at about 6.00am on a bright and sunny morning.
At about this time the big guns that had been harassing us ceased their firing.
We thought that we had by then got in so close that the guns, high on the cliffs, could not depress down on to us. I read later that our commandos had gone in ahead of the Camerons, scaled the cliffs up to the gun emplacements, and after a short but desperate fight had silenced the guns and their crews. This was one of the few successes of the day. Good old Lord Lovat and his bonny men.
Over on the other side of the assault area the Free French Chasseurs, smallish craft though bigger than MLs, were carrying the Marines. This I heard from Sparks during the morning, together with the fact that the Marines did not get ashore. If that is so, I do not know the reason why.
We had no idea how the battle in general was going. Jerry had apparently only recently reinforced his defences with extra troops, and was ready and waiting for the Canadians to come to him. The Canadians stood little chance.
During the morning the Germans, clever as ever, started using the Canadian radio frequencies and call signs that our lot were using, which they must have gained knowledge of through their monitoring.
They issued confusing orders and contradictory instructions, probably using renegade Frenchmen, and this did not help our lot one bit.
Sapper Vic Sparrow of the Royal Canadian Engineers was one of the Canadian troops who took part in the assault:
I hit the beach and everything was just going like crazy. I just curled up and I don’t think I moved a muscle for a while. I would peek out and all of a sudden I would see a guy a little piece away from me and he’d look up and the next thing he was gone. He got it. It was that way. Finally things did quieten down a bit. I got up and walked along the beach a piece and I covered up this one chap and covered up a couple of lads. A fella by the name of Billy Lynch, who was in my outfit, he started to write a book. I got a copy of the transcript and in it he said he looked up, he was down by this timber, and he looked up and saw Lieutenant Shackelton and Sapper Sparrow running up and down the beach. He said the crazy so and so’s, they’re going to get killed. Well I didn’t get killed. I didn’t get a scratch as far as that was concerned. But, I saw one chap when he tried to go over the wire, he got hit and he was just burned to a crisp right there. It was almost impossible to move without getting hit.
Private John Patrick Grogan, from the Central Ontario Regiment, was also pinned down by heavy German fire.
We knew what we were supposed to do all